Are the NBC satellite channels (like NBCSN, USA, etc.) going to cover these events live, even though some might be very early in the morning? Or will those even be delayed? Or repeated.

NBCSN is showing all of the figure skating live (except for the two parts of the team competition that take place before the opening ceremonies). The "important" parts of the figure skating coverage will be repeated by NBC.

It looks like most of the ice hockey and curling will be live.

Right now, the online schedule appears to go up just to the first Monday, so it's hard to tell. However, on the first Saturday, NBC Sports Network is airing the USA-Finland women's hockey game live starting at 3 AM Eastern, with some cross country skiing and speed skating at 5:30 AM.

Because two years from now, when the summer Olympics are in Rio, chances are that a lot of things will be live in New York prime time...but I live out west, where most things will probably be on a 3-hour tape delay like they did for Vancouver. (One reason I heard why NBC didn't air the prime time coverage live on, say, Bravo (they would have to use a channel with separate east coast and west coast feeds so they wouldn't tie up a channel out east with something airing simultaneously on NBC), was, somebody was afraid that people would overhear their neighbors' TVs and hear what was happening, which would spoil the coverage they wanted to watch three hours later.)

(One reason I heard why NBC didn't air the prime time coverage live on, say, Bravo (they would have to use a channel with separate east coast and west coast feeds so they wouldn't tie up a channel out east with something airing simultaneously on NBC), was, somebody was afraid that people would overhear their neighbors' TVs and hear what was happening, which would spoil the coverage they wanted to watch three hours later.)

That is so dumb that only a TV exec could follow that logic, so it must be true.

NBCSN is showing all of the figure skating live (except for the two parts of the team competition that take place before the opening ceremonies). The "important" parts of the figure skating coverage will be repeated by NBC.

It looks like most of the ice hockey and curling will be live.

Right now, the online schedule appears to go up just to the first Monday, so it's hard to tell. However, on the first Saturday, NBC Sports Network is airing the USA-Finland women's hockey game live starting at 3 AM Eastern, with some cross country skiing and speed skating at 5:30 AM.

I'm actually surprised that MSNBC will show all the figure skating live, considering it's their marquee event for the Olympics. You'd think that will cut into their audience on the channel that is getting the higher ad rates (at least I would imagine sponsors will pay more for NBC primetime coverage). I guess they figure, with the time difference much of their audience is going to know the results ahead of time anyway. Have they done this before with marquee events?

Because of the sports for the winter Olympics, I won't be watching any of it. I mean what is there to watch, except maybe hockey if the USA gets in the finals.

For me, that's what makes it interesting. I watch sports I'd never watch otherwise, because it's the big event. And I enjoy most of them. I've actually watched a little of the US Trials in a few sports on NBCSN to get to know a few athletes in some sports. I equate it to those who watch the Super Bowl, but don't watch football the rest of the season. I do get how for some that might be boring, to watch something you don't normally have a desire to watch, but what can I say? I'm a sucker for the big event.

I'm actually surprised that MSNBC will show all the figure skating live, considering it's their marquee event for the Olympics. You'd think that will cut into their audience on the channel that is getting the higher ad rates (at least I would imagine sponsors will pay more for NBC primetime coverage). I guess they figure, with the time difference much of their audience is going to know the results ahead of time anyway. Have they done this before with marquee events?

Remember, "live" means "the events end by 2:30 PM Eastern time". NBC probably figures there won't be that many people watching it live, and since the results will be spoiled on local news programs anyway, it might as well get some ratings (and TV commercial revenue) out of it.

Also remember that every event is streamed live online, although you might need to have a cable/satellite subscription that includes a particular channel in order to watch an event that's being shown live on that channel, and there's no guarantee that every event online will have commentary. (I remember a cycling event in 2012 where, without commentary, you didn't realize that the winner had been dropped to second place for some foul until you saw a results listing about 10 minutes after the event ended that had the apparent silver medalist placed first.)

But everyone these days has a DVR. Why watch figure skating "live" (as it airs) in prime time when, instead, you could record it in the morning and watch your recording during prime time, fast forwarding through all the commercials?

But everyone these days has a DVR. Why watch figure skating "live" (as it airs) in prime time when, instead, you could record it in the morning and watch your recording during prime time, fast forwarding through all the commercials?

I have to say, i watch the Olympics differently than I do other sporting events. I generally prefer to sit down at prime time and watch a hodgepodge of different events. So on a given night, I might enjoy watching some skiing, figure skating and bob sledding. I think just watching 4 hours of figure skating, even without commercials would bore me. My only exception is hockey. If I'm home and there's hockey on, I'll watch the whole games and use the NBC time to watch the other stuff.

But everyone these days has a DVR. Why watch figure skating "live" (as it airs) in prime time when, instead, you could record it in the morning and watch your recording during prime time, fast forwarding through all the commercials?

Right, but if you're using a DVR who cares if the stuff is live anyway. It's much easier the way NBC does it because I don't have to worry about recording stuff on different channels and different times. NBC just puts the main stuff on during primetime (with prelim stuff during the day) and I could just cull through that with my DVR. If you want to watch any of the non-main sports you could go searching for those channels.

But everyone these days has a DVR. Why watch figure skating "live" (as it airs) in prime time when, instead, you could record it in the morning and watch your recording during prime time, fast forwarding through all the commercials?

You would think anybody in their right minds would have a DVR, but none of my family or friends ( except one ) have them and I have tried to give each of them one with lifetime for free!! Go figure.

The Olympics is the time I am the most grateful for my TiVo. I honestly don't know how anybody could possibly get through the NBC coverage without a DVR. I FF through all the commercials, puff pieces, interviews, profiles, sob stories, and other crap, and can usually watch a 4-hour prime time broadcast in well under 2 hours -- even less if I'm not interested in all the sports that are being shown.

It is pretty pathetic how little actual competition they show in prime time broadcasts. If you're lucky, you see very American (no matter whether they have any chance of medaling), plus the top 4-5 medal contenders, and that's it. If they cut down on all the puff pieces and BS that has nothing to do with sports, they could show so much more and the coverage would be SO much better. I love to watch all the unusual sports that you only see at the Olympics (speed skating is my favorite, both kinds), but I couldn't care less about all the personal interest BS.

I guess showing whole events live is an improvement -- but it's a lot of different recordings to manage. What I'd really love to see is a prime-time broadcast that combines the day's competitions into one show, but without all the fluffy crap pieces. I bet they could show 2x the sports in the same amount of time.

The Olympics is the time I am the most grateful for my TiVo. I honestly don't know how anybody could possibly get through the NBC coverage without a DVR. I FF through all the commercials, puff pieces, interviews, profiles, sob stories, and other crap, and can usually watch a 4-hour prime time broadcast in well under 2 hours -- even less if I'm not interested in all the sports that are being shown.

It is pretty pathetic how little actual competition they show in prime time broadcasts. If you're lucky, you see very American (no matter whether they have any chance of medaling), plus the top 4-5 medal contenders, and that's it. If they cut down on all the puff pieces and BS that has nothing to do with sports, they could show so much more and the coverage would be SO much better. I love to watch all the unusual sports that you only see at the Olympics (speed skating is my favorite, both kinds), but I couldn't care less about all the personal interest BS.

I guess showing whole events live is an improvement -- but it's a lot of different recordings to manage. What I'd really love to see is a prime-time broadcast that combines the day's competitions into one show, but without all the fluffy crap pieces. I bet they could show 2x the sports in the same amount of time.

I look at the Olympics differently than I do say the NFL or MLB. To me, watching the Olympics is a lot more like watching Survivor than the NFL playoffs for instance. I watch it for pure entertainment much more than caring about the sport and even the outcomes (except hockey, which I care immensely about). I don't watch these sports the other 3 years and 50 weeks between Olympics. I have no idea who any of these people are, nor will I care about them a week after the Olympics are over. So during those two weeks I want to know who they are, what their story is and why I should root for (or against) them. Much like Survivor or Big Brother a lot of that comes from their stories, and their struggle and about them trying to be the best they can be. Watching a skiing event not knowing about any of these people is similar to watching a stock ticker. I just have no feelings about it. And it's boring. And I consider myself a big Olympics fan, having watched as much as I can of every Olympiad since 1968, and I even have a lot of older Olympics still recorded on VHS and DVD (from 1984 on). I suppose if you follow these sports and know who all the skier are besides Lindsey Vonn (who's not participating anyway), then you want to see as much as possible. For most of us who don't, I think it's much more interesting to something about them.

The Olympics is the time I am the most grateful for my TiVo. I honestly don't know how anybody could possibly get through the NBC coverage without a DVR. I FF through all the commercials, puff pieces, interviews, profiles, sob stories, and other crap, and can usually watch a 4-hour prime time broadcast in well under 2 hours -- even less if I'm not interested in all the sports that are being shown.

Don't be ridiculous. There is not enough actual sports to cover even 2 hours, it seems.

What I'd really love to see is a prime-time broadcast that combines the day's competitions into one show, but without all the fluffy crap pieces. I bet they could show 2x the sports in the same amount of time.

So would I. One small problem; besides us, who would watch?

Remember how Olympic broadcasting works.
Step one: NBC bids against CBS, Fox, and ABC/ESPN for the sole rights to air the Olympics in the USA (which is something I think they should change - let networks bid on, say, individual sports; to handle the "Who would bid for, say, badminton or judo?" problem, lump sports without separate bidders together and give those rights to whoever bids highest for the Opening and Closing Ceremonies).
Step two: NBC promises sky-high ratings to advertisers in order to make enough money to make this profitable.
Step three: NBC airs too many sports (besides figure skating) and not enough human interest stories, and half of the potential audience (and pardon me for sounding sexist, but I am under the impression that it's "the female half") don't watch.
Step four: NBC doesn't deliver the ratings it promised the advertisers, so it has to give heavily discounted advertising time on its popular shows (which, nowadays, is pretty much The Voice and its Sunday night NFL coverage).

Remember how Olympic broadcasting works.
Step one: NBC bids against CBS, Fox, and ABC/ESPN for the sole rights to air the Olympics in the USA (which is something I think they should change - let networks bid on, say, individual sports; to handle the "Who would bid for, say, badminton or judo?" problem, lump sports without separate bidders together and give those rights to whoever bids highest for the Opening and Closing Ceremonies).
Step two: NBC promises sky-high ratings to advertisers in order to make enough money to make this profitable.
Step three: NBC airs too many sports (besides figure skating) and not enough human interest stories, and half of the potential audience (and pardon me for sounding sexist, but I am under the impression that it's "the female half") don't watch.
Step four: NBC doesn't deliver the ratings it promised the advertisers, so it has to give heavily discounted advertising time on its popular shows (which, nowadays, is pretty much The Voice and its Sunday night NFL coverage).

They are using a formula that has worked for years. And for those who want to watch "just the sports", there are options. The NBC cable outlets usually cover the sports without as many fluff pieces and you can online stream just about anything.

The Olympics is the time I am the most grateful for my TiVo. I honestly don't know how anybody could possibly get through the NBC coverage without a DVR. I FF through all the commercials, puff pieces, interviews, profiles, sob stories, and other crap, and can usually watch a 4-hour prime time broadcast in well under 2 hours -- even less if I'm not interested in all the sports that are being shown.

It is pretty pathetic how little actual competition they show in prime time broadcasts. If you're lucky, you see very American (no matter whether they have any chance of medaling), plus the top 4-5 medal contenders, and that's it. If they cut down on all the puff pieces and BS that has nothing to do with sports, they could show so much more and the coverage would be SO much better. I love to watch all the unusual sports that you only see at the Olympics (speed skating is my favorite, both kinds), but I couldn't care less about all the personal interest BS.

I guess showing whole events live is an improvement -- but it's a lot of different recordings to manage. What I'd really love to see is a prime-time broadcast that combines the day's competitions into one show, but without all the fluffy crap pieces. I bet they could show 2x the sports in the same amount of time.

The problem is that the sports aren't good enough to stand on their own. There's a reason we don't watch these sports between Olympics (with a few exceptions like Hockey). I don't mean to offend someone who is a big fan of skiing but the overwhelming majority of viewers only watch these sports every 4 years. And we need the pomp and prestige of the big event to make the competitions interesting. We need to see how big a deal the Olympics are to the competitors and what they did to get there. We need the story set.

With all that said I think NBC could probably cut down on a lot of their non-sports pieces. I almost never watch the Mary Carillo stuff and they do go a little overboard at times with the puff pieces.

The problem is that the sports aren't good enough to stand on their own. There's a reason we don't watch these sports between Olympics (with a few exceptions like Hockey). I don't mean to offend someone who is a big fan of skiing but the overwhelming majority of viewers only watch these sports every 4 years. And we need the pomp and prestige of the big event to make the competitions interesting. We need to see how big a deal the Olympics are to the competitors and what they did to get there. We need the story set.

With all that said I think NBC could probably cut down on a lot of their non-sports pieces. I almost never watch the Mary Carillo stuff and they do go a little overboard at times with the puff pieces.

As a history and travel guy, I enjoy the pieces on the host city and country. I will be interested to see if they cover any of the controversy around location, corruption and Putin? My guess is they tread lightly on those issues.

My one complaint on those puff pieces is sometimes they are just way too long. Those half hour pieces they runs sometimes on late night or to open up a slow event night are too much. A 3-5 minute piece on the key athletes and a few 5 minute pieces on stuff around the Olympics is fine.

The problem is that the sports aren't good enough to stand on their own. There's a reason we don't watch these sports between Olympics (with a few exceptions like Hockey). I don't mean to offend someone who is a big fan of skiing but the overwhelming majority of viewers only watch these sports every 4 years. And we need the pomp and prestige of the big event to make the competitions interesting. We need to see how big a deal the Olympics are to the competitors and what they did to get there. We need the story set.

I honestly think I get nearly all of that stuff anyway, because the commentary constantly is talking about all that stuff instead of the actual sports. So even if you FF through the fluff segment about how hard it was for so-and-so to rehab her knee and she was told she would never compete again and now here she is at the Olympics! -- as soon as she leaves the starting gate in the actual race, someone says "Yes, isn't it amazing how strong she looks after that knee injury that everyone thought was career-ending? And that was just last April!" Boom! You're up to date with the backstory.

I know they say it's women who need all that stuff or they won't watch, but I guess I'm just not like that at all. I guess I don't mind a little human interest stuff now and then (although some of the stuff they talk about is pretty stupid)-- but it shouldn't be at the expense of broadcasting the actual sports. If you really feel compelled to mention it, there is plenty of downtime during the actual competition to tell us how so-and-so just loves her little dog named Sochi and doesn't the fact she named her dog that 5 years ago that prove that was destined for Olympic glory? All you have to do is SAY that and I get it. I don't need to waste 5 minutes actually watching her with the dog.

I honestly think I get nearly all of that stuff anyway, because the commentary constantly is talking about all that stuff instead of the actual sports. So even if you FF through the fluff segment about how hard it was for so-and-so to rehab her knee and she was told she would never compete again and now here she is at the Olympics! -- as soon as she leaves the starting gate in the actual race, someone says "Yes, isn't it amazing how strong she looks after that knee injury that everyone thought was career-ending? And that was just last April!" Boom! You're up to date with the backstory.

I know they say it's women who need all that stuff or they won't watch, but I guess I'm just not like that at all. I guess I don't mind a little human interest stuff now and then (although some of the stuff they talk about is pretty stupid)-- but it shouldn't be at the expense of broadcasting the actual sports. If you really feel compelled to mention it, there is plenty of downtime during the actual competition to tell us how so-and-so just loves her little dog named Sochi and doesn't the fact she named her dog that 5 years ago that prove that was destined for Olympic glory? All you have to do is SAY that and I get it. I don't need to waste 5 minutes actually watching her with the dog.

I guess I'm just not like that. I want to know a bit more about the athletes, otherwise I just don't have a feel for who they are and why I should even bother watching them. Saying a couple of things while the race is going on just doesn't do it for me. One of my complaints as a non-fan of Soccer who might watch a bit of the World Cup is they DON'T do that. I'd love to know who the star players are and why they are stars and something about their careers. I watch the matches and frankly it bores me because I have ZERO idea who these players are. Maybe they do this between matches, I'm not sure, but I haven't seen it. Part of it is because I think a lot of the coverage is done using foreign announcers who don't understand the American audience and assume we follow it like everyone else does.

I honestly think I get nearly all of that stuff anyway, because the commentary constantly is talking about all that stuff instead of the actual sports. So even if you FF through the fluff segment about how hard it was for so-and-so to rehab her knee and she was told she would never compete again and now here she is at the Olympics! -- as soon as she leaves the starting gate in the actual race, someone says "Yes, isn't it amazing how strong she looks after that knee injury that everyone thought was career-ending? And that was just last April!" Boom! You're up to date with the backstory.

I know they say it's women who need all that stuff or they won't watch, but I guess I'm just not like that at all. I guess I don't mind a little human interest stuff now and then (although some of the stuff they talk about is pretty stupid)-- but it shouldn't be at the expense of broadcasting the actual sports. If you really feel compelled to mention it, there is plenty of downtime during the actual competition to tell us how so-and-so just loves her little dog named Sochi and doesn't the fact she named her dog that 5 years ago that prove that was destined for Olympic glory? All you have to do is SAY that and I get it. I don't need to waste 5 minutes actually watching her with the dog.

So very much this! I watch the Olympics to watch the countries competing in the events, not the human interest and geography pieces. If I cared about that I'd watch the Travel Channel or Biography. Or I'd spend all day on Wikipedia reading about the competitors and their home towns.

I get so annoyed when I fire up the TV to watch a very specific event's coverage and then have to waste 15 minutes learning about some Brazilian luge athlete who had a rough childhood, only to see them eliminated from the competition completely 5 minutes later. Meanwhile, the team who goes on to win that competition wasn't shown competing at all because of that fluff piece.

In a new study published in Communication, Culture & Critique, Erin Whiteside, an assistant professor in the school of journalism and electronic media at the University of Tenn., and Marie Hardin, at the College of Communication at Penn State University, explore why women may be participating in sports but not watching it on TV. The researchers interviewed 19 women aged 26 to 43 in small groups for about 90 minutes each. They asked the participants about what sports they watched on television, why they watched, and what factors influenced their viewing habits. Overall, it’s clear that despite participating in sports, women still don’t watch athletic events on television for a variety of surprisingly gender-based reasons.

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Unanimously, however, the women said they preferred watching the Olympics, because of the way the programming is packaged and delivered in compressed and easy-to-follow narratives. The vignettes that bring viewers up to date on the athletes to follow, and the relevant highlights of their personal struggles during their journey to the Games, appeal to women who don’t have time to follow athletes during an entire season, much less over several years.

I don't want "tell me what's on what channel when." I want "tell me when this sport is on."

When can we get that? They have a schedule of the events, sort of, but no channels listed yet as far as I can see.

And, not to be sexist, but can I get a schedule for men's hockey that doesn't also include women's hockey?

They don;t usually program such discreet blocks. They like to hop around to force you to watch more. But with something like a hockey game, they usually show the full thing without any gaps other than commercial breaks at intermission. And the intermission lasts as long as an actual intermission. They don't re-join an hour later.

__________________
Jeff
Proud to use my TiVo improperly
President of the TiVoShanan Fan Club

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I don't want to know "what does NBCSN have on Tuesday at noon." I want to know "when (and what channel) is hockey on."

Your best chance of this is to wait until just before the Olympics begin, then check the listings for each of the Olympics channels (NBC, NBC Sports Network, MSNBC, CNBC, USA - note Bravo will not have any coverage this time like it did in London) and when a program says "Olympics", check the details for something like "Ice Hockey (M)". Ice hockey games tend to be aired in dedicated blocks.

Right now, you can try going to the NBC Olympic TV Schedule site and scrolling through the whole thing. Yes, it is tedious, but that seems to be the only way right now of finding out when hockey is on. (The schedule has some glitches; the first men's game I found was "Czech Republic vs. Czech Republic.")

Note that NBC Sports Network is airing something called "Ice Hockey Game of the Day" each day at around 5 PM Eastern; they don't tell you in advance which game it is (or, for that matter, if it's men's or women's).

We have our own focus group right here, and Ruth and I (among others) are coming in on the side of people who want more sports, and you like some of the features that I would rather see on a pre-game show than in the middle of the competition I want to watch.

What I object to is that we have other people in the thread insisting that women like one thing and men like another, in direct contradiction of what is being posted in this very thread. Maybe I'm on a lot of people's ignore list, but Ruth's opinion, and yours, deserve to be heard.

The one thing that I can hope for, I guess, is that figure skating will be covered by a pool feed and shot by people who are used to covering figure skating, and not the ham-handed idiots that just worked the cameras at the US Nationals.

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"The capacity of human beings to disappoint me is never ending." -- Ereth

I watch both. I expect to see some real coverage in the longer daytime blocks with filler and recap during prime. I also expect to make liberal use if the ff button in my remote. I don't usually care for interviews (especially in figure skating for some reason). Background pieces are ok, but I know that after a few days, I'll tire of seeing the same stories over and over. I'm already tired of everyone commenting on Gracie Gold's name.